Wednesday, July 5, 2017

From Real Magic to Fantasy Magic: inspiration & spark

This and other inspirations of mine are gathered in the Spark Directory for you to explore.

Enjoy!

In Part 1 of this series, I began questioning my life's purpose. As I mulled through my divergent callings, I struck upon a fascinating idea. Instead of writing a book of truth, I could deliver that truth within my fiction. My knowledge of the ego and the true self already informed how I developed my characters. And I'd noticed the Law of Attraction at work, not just in real life, but also in the most compelling stories of all ages. It seems the human heart is hard-wired to yearn for just desserts - nice people manifest rewards, and mean people manifest trouble.

These cosmic principles feel so inherently right to us that we even require our myths and stories to reflect them in some way. We want the good guy to triumph, and we want the bad guy to suffer. The best stories feel so powerful to us because they embody these cosmic principles throughout many facets of the storyline. I'd discovered the formula for a great story, and it was grounded in the ultimate truth of the universe. It is the formula for all stories, both real and fictional.

Integrating this notion into my storytelling, I reviewed my fantasy tales and began noticing cosmic principles everywhere. The most obvious representation was the magic of the Known World. What better parallel could there be than a person setting forth the intention to cast a spell, and the manifestation of that spell? That was the crux of the Law of Attraction: decide, align, receive. The only difference between fact and fiction was that in the real world, magic is dismissed as fantasy, so it can be harder for the mind to allow for the possibility. In the Known World, magic is accepted as possible, so it manifests much more easily.

Beyond the normal magic of the Known World, there was also the idea of deep magic. Originally based on an elite magical language known only to a blessed few, deep magic transformed into the deliberate use of creative energy to manifest change in the physical world. The elite language was no longer a requirement, but rather an advanced tool to direct the creative energy, similar to the use of sacred chants and sutras in the real world.

Just as every person can attain enlightenment, all people of the Known World can potentially wield deep magic. But not all on Earth are called to awaken, and few in the Known World are called to transcend their mortal limitations to channel deep magic into the physical realm.

Real people tend to be powerful in certain areas of life, but flawed in others. Few of us are desperately evil or unerringly sanctified. Rather, most of us tread some sort of middle ground, where we do well in certain areas and less well in others. To mirror this in my Tales of the Known World saga, I reimagined the elite rosen who use their special language to wield deep magic.

This language awakens their inner power, but it's also a shortcut to wielding deep magic without attaining enlightenment first. They can create anything they desire, but only if they can believe in the magic they're casting. Just like all of us on Earth, their unlimited creative power is hampered only by their beliefs of what's possible and their expectations of the future. In the Known World, these expectations are influenced in turn by prophesy.